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The tough, no nonsense prosecutor who doubled the size of the Kenai District Attorney's office will leave her position in August to take on a new role as assistant attorney general in the Department of Law Rural Prosecutions Unit in Anchorage.

June Stein, who has been the Kenai District Attorney since she replaced Dwayne McConnell on Sept. 1, 2004, will once again be working with McConnell, who heads up the rural unit based in Alaska's largest city.

Stein served as an assistant district attorney under McConnell in the Kenai office from December 2002 until being promoted.

"I'm very excited about it," Stein said on Thursday of the new job. "I had not been looking to move; it was an opportunity that just arose."

In her new post, Stein will be one of the state prosecutors who assists smaller district attorney offices in rural Alaska when they are short staffed and there are not enough attorneys to handle the case load, or when the office receives complex cases the local attorneys cannot thoroughly investigate and prepare without neglecting the normal operation of the office, according to a printed statement issued by Sue McLean, chief assistant attorney general.

McLean said, in terms of the special prosecutions unit, rural would include any of the small outlying offices: Bethel, Barrow, Kotzebue, Dillingham to some extent and Kodiak.

"The mission is to reduce staffing shortages in the rural offices, shortages that can arise due to large cases," she said.

Although no replacement has been named for Stein in Kenai, all Department of Law attorneys have been notified of Stein's transfer to Anchorage.

"We have not advertised outside the department yet," McLean said.

Deputy Attorney General Rick Svobodny said Stein is "a role model for the type of attorneys Alaska needs."

"Her attributes will be put to good use in the Rural Prosecutions Unit where she will be able to provide assistance and share her knowledge with attorneys statewide," Svobodny said.

Stein said she feels good about what she has accomplished while serving as Kenai District Attorney.

"There were three assistant district attorneys and now there are six, and we have an assistant attorney general in the office, which we did not have," Stein said. "We also do juvenile cases, which we didn't do before."

The Kenai assistants are Scot Leaders, Jean Seaton, Kelly Lawson, Angela Jamieson, Gary Poorman and Devron Hill. The assistant attorney general is Michelle Higuchi. The paralegal and support staff also has grown and the office space has nearly doubled.

"I hope I made the community feel the system is working for them," Stein said.

"I'll certainly miss the friends I've made here, but I'm only moving to Anchorage," she said.

Phil Hermanek can be reached at phillip.hermanek@peninsulaclarion.com.